Turi found himself back within the temporary camp, his head aching. Turi felt tired; so, so tired, but a feeling of overwhelming fear kept him awake.

When he had chosen the name ‘Animal’ at the start of Earth’s ascension, had he been more correct than he had ever intended to be? Turi’s entire body trembled; partly because, while his muscles weren’t tired in the slightest, his mind felt like it could hardly control his own body.

‘No, no, no. I need to go back. I need to destroy the scale.’ Turi thought, desperately trying to gain access to the void in his mind once more, where the scale was, but he couldn’t. Turi pushed for it, and he hardly even noticed his vision becoming dark at the edges. Turi pushed, with every ounce of his will, and his vision went black. He could distantly feel his body striking the dirt, and his mind started to slip towards unconsciousness.

***

Ascenturi found himself standing on a field, gazing at himself. The only difference between the bird standing before him and himself was the mindless look in his eyes. The bird standing before him was a beast.

As the mindless beast approached him, Turi tried to take to the air, to escape the monstrous animal that approached him menacingly, but his wings were bound in chains. Turi followed them with his eyes, and they led to the scale. He used the miniature organ in his throat to plead with the mindless bird as it approached, but it paid his words no heed.

As the beasts’ beak fell down, aiming for his throat, Turi awoke, covered in grass. Turi was gazing upwards at the sky. It was bright, but the sun was covered by the image of himself as a beast. However, as his eyes cleared, Turi realized that it was just his tome. It was open, on a page that he didn’t remember writing. It was full of begging, and Turi realized that it was what he had said when pleading for his life to the monstrous version of himself.

Turi dismissed the tome and looked around, a heavy feeling bearing down on him. He felt tired, still, but Turi wanted to go back. He wanted to go destroy the scale, but he could only vaguely feel the strange world in his mind. Turi tried to stand, but he didn’t even realize that he wasn’t moving. His eyes slowly closed, and he descended back into slumber.

***

This time, Turi was not assaulted by any dreams. When he reawoke, the sun was setting, and Turi felt and seemed… fine. But he wasn’t; Turi knew, deep down, that, somewhere within his mind, the scale was there. It would chain him, and beat him, and force him to be a good bird. It was what would chain him to his identity as Animal.

‘I need to go back,’ Was the only though that Turi could muster. It repeated over and over, and Turi was so lost in his desire to return that he never even tried.

Something else finally caught his attention, and Turi looked to his left. Jeremiah was there, and Turi realized that, this entire time, an illusory eyeball had been watching him.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

The man said nothing, and simply sat next to him. For a while, Turi’s mind was silent, and it was blissful. The feeling of perpetual fear had made him more exhausted than he had ever felt before, and the brief minute where it as absent made him feel better. Slowly, though, his thoughts started to return.

Turi reached out for the odd section of his mind once more, and it hardly resisted him when Turi pushed. He reappeared in the black void, and Turi saw the scale, so, so far away, but in perfect vision of his prodigal eyesight.

Turi willed the scale to come to him, and it did. His eyes lit up, and it burst into flame. It did not burn, though. A stone spike struck it with the speed of a missile, but it did not even leave a dent behind. Turi used his eyes to try to pull it apart from every direction, but it didn’t even creak.

Turi could feel the fear rising up in him again, and Turi became more frantic as he assaulted the scale. His fire did nothing, his talons slid across its surface harmlessly, his beak didn’t even stain it, and the stone spikes didn’t even dent it.

Just as he felt like he was about to fall apart, his thoughts accelerated. They doubled, and then they tripled, and something clicked in his mind, just like when he had fought the stone-clad squirrel, and just like when he had gazed into the eyes of the all-knowing crow.

In front of him, the scale started to wither. Turi felt a feeling of immense, titanic relief welling up in his heart as it came undone, and Turi returned to his body.

Tears rolled down his face, and he hardly even noticed that Jeremiah’s arms were wrapped around him.

***

Turi sat on his cushion in his miniature tent. His struggles had felt like an eternity, but he had survived. The hunt was over, now, and they were about to return to Anoptera any minute now. Turi was going to return with them, but he wouldn’t stay there.

None of this was on his mind, though, because Turi had come out of his struggles with what he had wanted.

The scale had been built upon the idea of morals, and when he had gazed upon it for so long, it was inevitable that he had gained an insight into them.

Turi wasn’t really sure if he truly understood what they meant, but it was immensely valuable to him nonetheless.

Suddenly, Turi’s miniature tent disappeared, and he looked up. Aaron stood over him, holding it in a single hand.

To his glare, Aaron said, “What? We’re leaving, and we can’t just leave this behind.”

Turi sighed. The human was right, and Turi stood up before taking to the air, feeling strangely light. Below, Aaron picked up the pillow that Turi slept on, brushing the grass off of it before tossing it into a bag, along with Turi’s tent.

The trip back to Anoptera went without incident, although it took significantly longer than it had taken to get there. They carried with them hundreds of essence cores, after all, and Aaron even carried the carapace of a bunch of knight ants, intending on having somebody at the camp turn it into armor.

When they got back, one of the first things they did is divide the essence cores. There were precisely two hundred and thirty three of them, and Turi was given twenty. It was a horrible haul, but Turi didn’t care. As he stuffed them into a sack and prepared to leave Anoptera, an illusory eyeball suddenly appeared in front of him, and Turi was reminded to tell the humans farewell. They already knew he was leaving, but he had come to consider Jeremiah to be a friend, and it would be rude to leave without a single word.

He flew over to Jeremiah’s tent, carrying the sack in his talons, and played a game of chess with him. Turi didn’t cheat, and Jeremiah beat him, but Turi was happy. Finally, Turi realized that it was starting to get late, and he needed to go.

“Thank you,” Turi told Jeremiah, and the man nodded silently.

With nothing more to be said, Turi took to the air, sack in his talons, and he started heading towards his flock’s meeting place.